The importance of language

When politicians speak, listen to the language they use. Their language tells us how they think. My quotes are taken from a Polly Curtis article in the Guardian last week on the new White Paper published by Ed Balls.

Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said: "It may be that we will discover some teachers who don't make the grade ... We want this to be a profession which is continually learning and developing, and that will be central to the licence.”

Erm… yes, ok, teachers should be of a certain standard. I have no problem with that. Heads should be able to fire underperforming teachers. But isn’t it interesting that pupils don’t have to reach certain standards too…?

What else does The White Paper say?

• It sets out plans for a new report card judging every school on six factors: pupil progress, attainment and wellbeing, parental and pupil perceptions of the school, and how well schools are narrowing the achievement gap between rich and poor. Balls said he was "convinced" that the report card should include a single-grade verdict for every school.

Funny, isn’t it, that pupils are not required to meet certain standards to be able to attend these schools? Funny isn’t it that pupil perceptions of the school contribute to this single-grade verdict whereas teacher perceptions don’t even make it onto the list? Funny, isn’t it that ‘narrowing the achievement gap between rich and poor’ is the ultimate goal for schools? Why hasn’t Balls said, ‘Ensuring all children achieve their potential’? Under such direction, schools would be better off giving their rich kids no support at all so that their performance drops, thereby closing that achievement gap and ticking Balls’ all-important and frankly racist target.

The White Paper makes various promises to families and children about what schools will provide. If schools fail to meet the guarantees to families, parents can complain first to the school, then to the local authority, and ultimately to the local government ombudsman, says the document, Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future.

I can’t wait for the day when a parent takes a school to court because their child is unable to learn, because the teacher is unable to control the other children because, well, the schools don’t have any powers to do something about those children. And why don’t they have any power? Because The White Paper didn’t give it to them! Is Balls stupid or does he just not know what makes children tick?

To be fair to Balls, The White Paper does lay out some obligations parents have and lays out fines if they don’t meet them. But the over-arching feel of the paper is that the pupil is the customer and the school is the provider. And that’s no the way to improve schools for children. Children must be given reason and motivation to improve themselves. If we constantly put the onus on schools, children will never take responsibility for their actions and our current situation will just get worse.

Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said: "Ed Balls has refused to give teachers the powers they need to deal with violence and disruption, such as removing the restrictions on teachers removing disruptive pupils. He rejected our plan to give teachers the power to search for banned items. He rejected our plan to let schools make parent contracts compulsory. His new gimmicks will not solve the deep problems we have with bad behaviour in schools."

Listen to the language that Gove uses. The feel of what he says is very different to Balls. Of course it is much easier to criticise from the other side. But the Conservatives will soon get the opportunity to shine... Let’s hope they make the situation brighter.